As I've talked about here off and on I've been having laser hair removal (LHR) done on my face and front of my neck for a good while. I've lost count, but I believe I'm at 14 or 15 sessions so far and while the vast majority of the dark hairs are gone, I do still have some concentrations of it on the side of my chin and some sporadic hairs elsewhere - primarily on my upper cheeks, sort of where the bottom of the eye socket is.
But still having some dark hairs isn't even really the biggest frustration at the moment. What is really bothering me is the money that's been spent so far - I believe without adding it up, it's in excess of $2500, but rather the amount of white hairs I now seem to have on my face. While some have speculated that I always had those, I really question that - I think I *might* have had some, but the amount I have now really seems to indicate to me that in at least some cases - perhaps a lot - that instead of completely killing the hair(s), they've simply been damaged to the point where there is no pigment. Now from an appearance standpoint it's not as big a deal as having the dark hairs as these aren't visible unless someone is *really close*. However, *I* know they are there and that's really frustrating in general, but especially with the amount of money that has been invested. Perhaps it's partially my fault as my pain tolerance isn't great and as such she probably hasn't upped the power on the laser as much or as quickly as she could have. It's frustrating enough that I've considered stopping the laser and moving to electrolysis, but I haven't pulled the trigger on that decision yet, partially because of what I'm going to talk about in the next paragraph.
This has left me in a bit of a quandary as I feel that I should get my "parts" done sooner rather than later as the couple of SRS surgeons I'm looking at strongly suggest it. Now, I haven't even discussed with the current LHR place if they can/will do the area, but I assume they can/will as they do list that area for "females" so I don't see why they wouldn't - I suppose I'll inquire the next time I'm there (next month I believe). However, even if they do I'm not sure if I want them to do that area based upon the experience I've had with my face. Don't get me wrong I really like the place I'm going and I really like the technician. However, I'm not sure if it's the machine they are using, the technique, my pain tolerance (as I mentioned above), or what, but if I'm going to have that area done I want to get it done "right" and not have the kind of issue I seem to be having with my face.
I can't say how much of a rush this is/isn't. I'm hopeful that our insurance (via J's job) will cover SRS in the next two years (I'd like to think for 2015, but 2016 is my best guess). Now perhaps I'm reading the tea leaves incorrectly, but if not, once they do I'd like to be able to move forward ASAP. I'm going to see Kelly my therapist at the end of the month for my "check in" - for those that normally read the blog, I keep in touch with her about every three months. I plan on confirming she's willing to write a letter for SRS - I have to assume she is - she wrote one for my HRT and then for my Orchi - and I'm also going to see if she has a suggestion for someone to see for the second letter. I'm not going to actually get the letters yet, but I want to be sure she's ready and willing to write one and if she has somebody she recommends - if not I need to start looking for someone to write that second letter. I'd like to have the LHR for my "parts" at least in progress as well, if not already done (if we're talking 2016).
Now if I am misreading things about J's insurance and we'd have to pay for the full thing out of pocket, I'd like to think that 2016 is a reasonable target for me to get SRS anyway, so really that's the target either way - although if her company surprises me and chooses to cover it and chooses to do so for 2015 then that would be even better. Of course this all assumes that my employment situation doesn't change which is always a possibility but since that's out of my control I will worry about that when/if that occurs.
I guess I'll cut this off now, I just wanted to vent a bit and I thought it might be nice to get back to a topic more related to transitioning.
- M
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